Police brutality at Wall Street protest

[mhgaffney]

Cops rough up and mace peaceful protesters in NYC--

Check it out for yourself.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=194965%C2%A0

[mhgaffney]

The Best Among Us

By Chris Hedges

September 30, 2011 "Truthdig" -- "There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave.

To be declared innocent in a country where the rule of law means nothing, where we have undergone a corporate coup, where the poor and working men and women are reduced to joblessness and hunger, where war, financial speculation and internal surveillance are the only real business of the state, where even habeas corpus no longer exists, where you, as a citizen, are nothing more than a commodity to corporate systems of power, one to be used and discarded, is to be complicit in this radical evil. To stand on the sidelines and say “I am innocent” is to bear the mark of Cain; it is to do nothing to reach out and help the weak, the oppressed and the suffering, to save the planet. To be innocent in times like these is to be a criminal. Ask Tim DeChristopher.

Choose. But choose fast. The state and corporate forces are determined to crush this. They are not going to wait for you. They are terrified this will spread. They have their long phalanxes of police on motorcycles, their rows of white paddy wagons, their foot soldiers hunting for you on the streets with pepper spray and orange plastic nets. They have their metal barricades set up on every single street leading into the New York financial district, where the mandarins in Brooks Brothers suits use your money, money they stole from you, to gamble and speculate and gorge themselves while one in four children outside those barricades depend on food stamps to eat. Speculation in the 17th century was a crime. Speculators were hanged. Today they run the state and the financial markets. They disseminate the lies that pollute our airwaves. They know, even better than you, how pervasive the corruption and theft have become, how gamed the system is against you, how corporations have cemented into place a thin oligarchic class and an obsequious cadre of politicians, judges and journalists who live in their little gated Versailles while 6 million Americans are thrown out of their homes, a number soon to rise to 10 million, where a million people a year go bankrupt because they cannot pay their medical bills and 45,000 die from lack of proper care, where real joblessness is spiraling to over 20 percent, where the citizens, including students, spend lives toiling in debt peonage, working dead-end jobs, when they have jobs, a world devoid of hope, a world of masters and serfs.

The only word these corporations know is more. They are disemboweling every last social service program funded by the taxpayers, from education to Social Security, because they want that money themselves. Let the sick die. Let the poor go hungry. Let families be tossed in the street. Let the unemployed rot. Let children in the inner city or rural wastelands learn nothing and live in misery and fear. Let the students finish school with no jobs and no prospects of jobs. Let the prison system, the largest in the industrial world, expand to swallow up all potential dissenters. Let torture continue. Let teachers, police, firefighters, postal employees and social workers join the ranks of the unemployed. Let the roads, bridges, dams, levees, power grids, rail lines, subways, bus services, schools and libraries crumble or close. Let the rising temperatures of the planet, the freak weather patterns, the hurricanes, the droughts, the flooding, the tornadoes, the melting polar ice caps, the poisoned water systems, the polluted air increase until the species dies.

Who the hell cares? If the stocks of ExxonMobil or the coal industry or Goldman Sachs are high, life is good. Profit. Profit. Profit. That is what they chant behind those metal barricades. They have their fangs deep into your necks. If you do not shake them off very, very soon they will kill you. And they will kill the ecosystem, dooming your children and your children’s children. They are too stupid and too blind to see that they will perish with the rest of us. So either you rise up and supplant them, either you dismantle the corporate state, for a world of sanity, a world where we no longer kneel before the absurd idea that the demands of financial markets should govern human behavior, or we are frog-marched toward self-annihilation.

Those on the streets around Wall Street are the physical embodiment of hope. They know that hope has a cost, that it is not easy or comfortable, that it requires self-sacrifice and discomfort and finally faith. They sleep on concrete every night. Their clothes are soiled. They have eaten more bagels and peanut butter than they ever thought possible. They have tasted fear, been beaten, gone to jail, been blinded by pepper spray, cried, hugged each other, laughed, sung, talked too long in general assemblies, seen their chants drift upward to the office towers above them, wondered if it is worth it, if anyone cares, if they will win. But as long as they remain steadfast they point the way out of the corporate labyrinth. This is what it means to be alive. They are the best among us.


Chris Hedges, whose column is published Mondays on Truthdig, spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years.

[mhgaffney]

Few writers have said it as well as Chris Hedges -- and none better.

[mosca]

Chris Hedges is good with the written and spoken word, but I question his ability to relate to the layman. I'm currently slogging through his 'Death of the Liberal Class' and at times it seems like 250+ pages of nothing more than mental masturbation and bitching/complaining.

This world needs someone to move and motivate the populace, and in a real way. NOT what Obama did.

[Smiling Assassin27]

Law and order: Good.
Criminal behavior in maintaining law and order: Unacceptable.

It's a fine line between helping avert a riot and abusing those you're sworn to protect. The 'Internet Reformation' has changed the game so much. Still, having NYPD essentially investigate/police itself is highly questionable. IAB's are way too easily co-opted, being part of the public union and being given the job of essentially ratting out their own. As a public union, they really ought to have camera crews documenting EVERY element of their job to help ensure public accountability.

[Garcia Bronco]

I saw the video and I don't understand why the Police maced that woamn other than her whining.

[chadta]

apparently they are starting copy cat protests in toronto on bay street, i might have to go see if i can loot something good.

[Rohirrim]

I saw the video and I don't understand why the Police maced that woamn other than her whining.

Speaking out against injustice is "whining?" You're pathetic.

[sirhcyennek81]

Actual brutality: Having your entire village/town razed to the ground because you or a family member went to an actual protest of actual importance.

Wall street brutality: "victim" will sue and win a nice chunk of change.

Totally the same.

:Broncos:

[Meck77]

apparently they are starting copy cat protests in toronto on bay street, i might have to go see if i can loot something good.
They are being organized nationwide. Should help Obama's campaign.

I wish I could find that clip of Obama talking about getting tough on banks and helping the people of main street.

[Garcia Bronco]

Speaking out against injustice is "whining?" You're pathetic.

I don't have a problem with people protesting, but let's call it what it is. I whine too. My question was to the interaction between the two. And what's this injustice?

[baja]

Speaking out against injustice is "whining?" You're pathetic.


Attitudes like Garcia's is what the elites have been working so hard to create. They have done a masterful job too. There are many Garcias out there.

Garcia,

I like you but you have been brain washed. You are applauding your enslaver's actions taken to enslave you and all of the rest of us too.

[Garcia Bronco]

Attitudes like Garcia's is what the elites have been working so hard to create. They have done a masterful job too. There are many Garcias out there.

Garcia,

I like you but you have been brain washed. You are applauding your enslaver's actions taken to enslave you and all of the rest of us too.

You are an idiot. That wasn't my point at all. Now either you didn't read my follow-up post, or you are an idiot. Your next post will decide which.

[ant1999e]

That crazy Glenn Beck predicted these types of protests here in the U.S. All these world protests have been orchestrated.

[baja]

You are an idiot. That wasn't my point at all. Now either you didn't read my follow-up post, or you are an idiot. Your next post will decide which.

OK

What did you say exactly?

[Garcia Bronco]

OK

What did you say exactly?

My question is why did the protestor get the mace to the face? They had to have done something.

[baja]

My question is why did the protestor get the mace to the face? They had to have done something.

If you think the current police force in the USA is there to serve and protect and only use force when absolutely necessary you are not paying attention.

For you to assume she must have been doing something to deserve the mazing you must not be aware of what is happening in the good old USA. You and so many others are asleep at the wheel. Too bad you have failed to heed to warnings of so many great men that have gone before you.

[Garcia Bronco]

If you think the current police force in the USA is there to serve and protect and only use force when absolutely necessary you are not paying attention.

For you to assume she must have been doing something to deserve the mazing you must not be aware of what is happening in the good old USA. You and so many others are asleep at the wheel. Too bad you have failed to heed to warnings of so many great men that have gone before you.

We are not talking about the police force at large in the US. We are talking about this single interaction. Police rarely...if ever...go out of their way to do this for NO reason what-so-ever.

[baja]

Neither of us can comment on the incident, we were not there.

In general the police are not the tolerant compassionate people there used to be, do you not see this?

[Garcia Bronco]

Neither of us can comment on the incident, we were not there.

In general the police are not the tolerant compassionate people there used to be, do you not see this?

That depends on the officer. Most of the officers out there are doing the right thing 99 percent of the time

[baja]

That used to be true in essence but your numbers are high even in the best of times.

These are not the best of times.

[DBruleU]

http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme/

LOL

Proposed List Of Demands For Occupy Wall St Movement!

Posted 9 days ago by LloydJHart (Vineyard Haven, MA)

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Demand four: Free college education.

Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.

Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.

Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.

These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy.

[sirhcyennek81]

http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme/

LOL

Proposed List Of Demands For Occupy Wall St Movement!

Posted 9 days ago by LloydJHart (Vineyard Haven, MA)

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. 1. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Demand two: 2. Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Demand three: 3. Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Demand four: 4. Free college education.

Demand five: 5. Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.
Demand six: 6. One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

Demand seven: 7. One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.

Demand eight: 8. Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Demand nine: 9. Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

Demand ten: Bring 10. American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board 11. debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

Demand twelve: 12. Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

Demand thirteen: 13. Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.

14. These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy.

1. Fine. You work two hours a day, max.

2. No.

3. Then why work at all?

4. And it will mean what? If you work for it...it usually means more to you.

5. No "alternative" fuel in existence is as efficient as oil and gas.

6. Well when we switch to alternative energy no one will be able to afford it. So why have bridges, roads, ports, rails?

7. So...where are they going to put the radioactive material from the currently in use nuclear plants?

8. The sexes are not equal biologically. They already ARE equal under the law. 14th, 15th and 16th amendments take care of the racial equality...these people dont read much, do they?

9. No.

10. Lord knows I want to know how China, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba and Venezuela run their elections and then emulate that high level of democracy here...stupid ****ing "demand".

11. I want a unicorn, for it to rain skittles and to marry Chris Evans. We can't always get what we want.

12. And where will those people work?

13. Unions have historically shown a link to organized crime. Lets make it worse...unions? GTFO.

14. Yeah. After a couple of nuclear weapons go off because of our open borders, those extra workers can get $20 an hour to clean up radioactive debris.

:Broncos:

[Garcia Bronco]

Oy veh.

[cutthemdown]

What a bunch of wackos, those demands are ridiculous. If college is free how are the teachers going to get paid? If govt pays for that and healthcare then I will just go be a professional student and stay in school, lots more fun then the real world.

[epicSocialism4tw]

http://occupywallst.org/forum/proposed-list-of-demands-for-occupy-wall-st-moveme/

LOL

Proposed List Of Demands For Occupy Wall St Movement!

Posted 9 days ago by LloydJHart (Vineyard Haven, MA)

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

Demand four: Free college education.

Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.

Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.

Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America's nuclear power plants.

Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.

Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live.

Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an independent and party observers system.

Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages, home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.

Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.

Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to form a union.

These demands will create so many jobs it will be completely impossible to fill them without an open borders policy.

This is hilarious Ha!

[cutthemdown]

Still that cop who walked up and maced the crowd, then walked about needs to be investigated. He did that out of malice, being pissed off, fed up, but IMO that was out of line big time. People have a right to protest even if its crazy. I do think police have a right to say if you block traffic, etc etc, we will arrest you. But mace and walk away, leaving you on the ground with eyes burning, that is unacceptable regardless of what our politics is right?

[epicSocialism4tw]

Still that cop who walked up and maced the crowd, then walked about needs to be investigated. He did that out of malice, being pissed off, fed up, but IMO that was out of line big time. People have a right to protest even if its crazy. I do think police have a right to say if you block traffic, etc etc, we will arrest you. But mace and walk away, leaving you on the ground with eyes burning, that is unacceptable regardless of what our politics is right?

They always walk away when they mace so that it doesn't blow back in their own faces.

I'd like to see the entire conflict because I severely doubt that that person was innocent and blameless.

[epicSocialism4tw]

That crazy Glenn Beck predicted these types of protests here in the U.S. All these world protests have been orchestrated.

I can't believe he has been correct.

Not just kind of correct, but on the money.

I remember back when he was on Fox, I would catch his show occasionally before the 5 o'clock news, and he'd be talking about these far left networks and would talk about the major players in this stuff and how they were going to start causing mob disruptions here. He talked about Van Jones, Frances Fox Piven, Richard Trumka, Stephen Lerner, etc, being players in a far left movement and all of it has played out like Beck said it would. So who shows up in these protests? Van Jones, Frances Fox Piven, Richard Trumka, and Stephen Lerner. Trumka in Wisconsin, everyone else in Manhattan. He said they'd use union goons to flood the streets. He was absolutely correct about that one too...thats all Wisconsin was.

I remember him saying long ago that they would use class warfare, that Van Jones, Piven, Trumka, and Lerner would all be cogs in a revolutionary movement. That was a long time ago too. I'd say it was maybe a year-and-a-half or so. He said they'd try to mimic the Arab Spring.

I didn't believe it when he said it, but dude has been right on the money. Not only with this, but with the Muslim Brotherhood thing too.

He must have someone on the inside giving him information. Not that I don't think that he's intelligent enough to figure this stuff out, but this is some obscure stuff that nobody else is talking about.

[alkemical]

http://www.skilluminati.com/Research/entry/occupy_itself

[Rohirrim]

They always walk away when they mace so that it doesn't blow back in their own faces.

I'd like to see the entire conflict because I severely doubt that that person was innocent and blameless.

Spoken like a true fascist.

Men used to believe in something called "class." Part of that class was that no self-respecting man would strike a woman. Now, if it's in the name of partisanship, what the hell. Spray them in the face with pepper spray. It's all good if it's for the cause.

[DenverBrit]

To the point commentary from an Irishman.

A warning for the squeamish.....ADULT LANGUAGE......truthful and funny!

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CQ3OZLoctFg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Rohirrim]

To the point commentary from an Irishman.

A warning for the squeamish.....ADULT LANGUAGE......truthful and funny!

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CQ3OZLoctFg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I'll vote for this guy! :rofl:

[epicSocialism4tw]

Spoken like a true fascist.

Men used to believe in something called "class." Part of that class was that no self-respecting man would strike a woman. Now, if it's in the name of partisanship, what the hell. Spray them in the face with pepper spray. It's all good if it's for the cause.

Women are not exempt from the law.

Spare us the drama.

[TheDave]

Please tell me that list of "Demands" isn't real...

Someone?.... Anyone?

[epicSocialism4tw]

Please tell me that list of "Demands" isn't real...

Someone?.... Anyone?

"We demand all of this...or we're going to get arrested again!"

-signed the one Wall Street protester who can read with authority to speak for the group.

[DBruleU]

Spoken like a true fascist.

Men used to believe in something called "class." Part of that class was that no self-respecting man would strike a woman. Now, if it's in the name of partisanship, what the hell. Spray them in the face with pepper spray. It's all good if it's for the cause.

Fascist? Please. You're comparing a dude in a trailer park with a wife beater on beating a woman, to law enforcement spraying mace in an unruly crowds face.

Apples to oranges. Perspective and common sense in reality would help you deal with life in a non-retarded way.

[epicSocialism4tw]

Another anti-semite among the crazies:
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qlKiATQIR_4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[ant1999e]

This is just an orchestrated distraction. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

[cutthemdown]

They always walk away when they mace so that it doesn't blow back in their own faces.

I'd like to see the entire conflict because I severely doubt that that person was innocent and blameless.

Why not just say the protest is ridiculous and you are not surprised a cop lost his temper? Isn't that a plausible scenario? Or is it more plausible those women put that cop in fear for his safety? Or did some phantom act not on the video?

[epicSocialism4tw]

Why not just say the protest is ridiculous and you are not surprised a cop lost his temper? Isn't that a plausible scenario? Or is it more plausible those women put that cop in fear for his safety? Or did some phantom act not on the video?

I just wouldn't jump to conclusions either way.

There are some pretty wacky people there who are doing things for the sole purpose of getting media attention.

[Rohirrim]

Women are not exempt from the law.

Spare us the drama.

The law against freedom of speech? Thanks, fascist.

[epicSocialism4tw]

The law against freedom of speech? Thanks, fascist.

Spare us the hystrionics.

[cutthemdown]

I just wouldn't jump to conclusions either way.

There are some pretty wacky people there who are doing things for the sole purpose of getting media attention.

I agree but that video showed enough to tell me that officer was not in fear from an angry mob. The police seemed to have control of them as well as you can a protest. Also IMO if you have done something to be maced for, you should then arrest and give medical treatment. Looks like the officers holding the barricades just stand there, and the white shirt ones just walk away. I don't like seeing that in my country, it pisses me off, and I think that cop should be found and fired IMO. Especially since cop unions and the bloated prison system half the reason my state is in such dire straights.

[sirhcyennek81]

The law against freedom of speech? Thanks, fascist.


Not to be contrarian...but would you be this hyperbolic if the protester getting maced was a TEA partier?


:Broncos:

[alkemical]

http://www.disinfo.com/2011/10/jp-morgan-chase-donates-4-6-million-to-nypd-on-eve-of-protests/

JP Morgan Chase Donates $4.6 Million To NYPD On Eve Of Protests